EBay’s CEO is still interested in bitcoin

EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe is once again talking about the company’s interest in bitcoin.

“Digital currency is going to play an important role going forward, and at PayPal we’re going to have to integrate digital currencies into our wallet,” the eBay
/quotes/zigman/76117/delayed/quotes/nls/ebayEBAY chief executive told CNBC on Thursday.

He’s addressed bitcoin, especially in relation to eBay’s PayPal unit, a few times in the past year. He even owns some of the digital currency, so that he can better understand how it can be used, he said in the Thursday interview.

“I’m more interested in the digital currency side, about how you and I can exchange value seamlessly using technology,” he said on CNBC.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is created through a cryptographic process rather than a central bank. The decentralized network that allows bitcoins to be transmitted could allow for the quicker and cheaper transfer of money, proponents say.

Still, the U.S. classifies bitcoins as property, not currency. That means that every time bitcoins are exchanged for goods or services, the person spending the digital currency creates a taxable event. It’s unclear if the tax classification of bitcoin in the U.S. could impede its usefulness as a payment method.

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